The Five Party Crashers You Meet in Heaven

The nation's most infamous buttinskis

Besides reminding us that horse people are truly, truly odd, Michaele and Tareq Salahi -- she a sari-garbed cougar, he a portly wine scion -- have become, in one fell Facebookian swoop, this ADD-addled nation's archetypal buttinskis.

But before the Salahi's were even a gleam in Bravo's eye, many party crashers of nearly peerless guile had already made the scene. Herein, the five most notorious. They didn't rub shoulders with Biden, but at least one got his photo taken with Jon Stewart, who's almost as funny!

David Teitelbaum and Jack Saltzberg
In 1988, two college students by the names of David Teitelbaum and Jack Saltzberg crashed the Oscars by pretending to be reporters for KCIA in Valencia. Once in they briefly interviewed Nicholas Cage (complete with Raising Arizona mullet), Patrick Swayze (post Dirty Dancing) and Jon Voight. Teitelbaum and Saltzberg were interviewed about their stunt by Johnny Carson:



Scott Weiss
Weiss, a real estate agent and erstwhile actor who'd appeared in Robocop, briefly devoted himself to breaking into Hollywood parties in the nineties. He retired from crashing, but reprised his role two years ago and broke into the Emmys and Screen Actors Guild Awards, getting himself photographed with Sally Field, Hayden Panettiere and Stephen Colbert. In '08, Weiss broke into the Oscars with a forged access pass and a bad Russian accent. He grabbed shots with Oscar winners Javier Bardem and Daniel Day-Lewis and that year's master of ceremonies, Jon Stewart. He's currently searching for a distributor for his film, "Crasher."

kid protocol

Kid Protocol
Professional party crasher Kid Protocol, born with the unfortunate A-cup-esque name Alex Mamlet, began filming his fete-finagling exploits at the Toronto Film Festival in '00. Billing himself "the world's leading expert on party crashing," Protocol has a film of his exploits for sale here. Of their crashing strategy, partner Bar-Lev says "there are some basic strategies. There's the upside-down guest list read, the fake invite, creating diversions. But the fundamental principle is confidence. If you act like you belong there, you'll get in. if you have one iota of doubt, you won't."

fan man

Stan Berman
In 1962 Stan Berman, a New York City cab driver, slipped through security, made his way to the stage, and awarded perpetual non-nominee Bob Hope a homemade Oscar. "Ladies and gentlemen," Berman said, "I'm the world's greatest gatecrasher, and I just came here to present Bob Hope with his 1938 trophy." Shelly Winters, on stage at the time, responded "We'll give it to him." Hope, referring to the Oscar's sponsor, then deadpanned "Who needs Price Waterhouse. All we need is a doorman."

James Jarrett Miller
A party crasher of a less than surreptitious sort, Miller will be forever known as the Fan Man for interrupting the Bowe-Holyfield title bout in '93 by power paragliding into the arena. Well done, sir.

Contact Us